Cross country: Crystal Lake South duo takes top McHenry County honors
Alex Ratkovich geared his summer workouts toward performing well at Saturday's McHenry County boys cross country meet held at Emricson Park in Woodstock.
The Cary-Grove senior was pleased with his effort.
Ratkovich placed second in a 3-mile time of 15:57.5. Crystal Lake South junior Jack Becker was the individual champion with a clocking of 15:48.1
"I have been thinking about this meet for the last 11 weeks," said Ratkovich. "I was really nervous because I wanted to be one of the top guys. I was really aggressive and stayed with Becker as long as I could. He is a very good runner. It was a good way to start the year.''
Becker, who battled muscle fatigue last season as a sophomore, was glad to be healthy to start the 2016 season.
"Last year I felt I like I peaked my performance in July so I wanted to train smarter this season so I peak in October," said Becker. "I want to learn from my mistakes of last year. I didn't know the course at all but felt like I had a good pace the entire race and I had a good kick at the end. "
Becker's was joined in the Top 10 by teammate Jon Prus who was sixth. Other than Ratkovich, Kyle Adams was 10th for the Trojans.
Jacobs' top runner was Zachary Albrecht, who placed fifth in a time of 16:08.5 while Huntley's best effort came from Jeremy Roe who was 12th.
Girls race: Dominant.
That word aptly describes Crystal Lake South's Caitlin Bruzzini's performance at Saturday's McHenry County meet.
The South senior ran a 3-mile time of 19:18.2 to grab top honors. Woodstock's Kate Jacobs was a distant second, 13 seconds behind Bruzzini with a time of 19:31.7.
"I feel awesome with the way I ran," said Bruzzini. "The temperature wasn't super hot. It was perfect weather conditions. I had some good surges and I felt like I finished strong."
Huntley's top performance came from sophomore Mary Raclawski who was ninth. Raclawski was followed by teammates Olivia Boncosky and Vicki Watkins who were 16th and 17th respectively.
Jacobs' top runner was Alyson Doherty, who finished 11th, followed by Isabelle Friend (22nd), Samantha Smith (23rd) and Jenna Skuza (24th).
Cary-Grove, which had only two runners in the meet, was led by Sarah Caesar who placed 18th while Meghan O' Malley placed 45th.
"We are still experimenting with a varsity lineup," said Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson. "With the uncertainty of the weather we didn't want to run some of the younger kids, As the season goes on we will have a solid varsity lineup."